Photomatix got (in)famous at Flickr with images that have a look that I call "Grunge". This is not ment a bit negative. Some like Mozart and some love Nirvana (actually quite a few may like both). Like in music there are so many art forms in photography that all have their own right. I actually like many images that show this "Grunge" look.

Some people call these pictures "not natural" (like some call Grunge music not being real music, remember Jazz in the early times? Maybe Mozart would play today Punk Rock, who knows?). They all should look at their own pictures because there is nothing "natural" either. If art would limit itself to what is called "natural" it would be so boring.

These "Grunge" photos are expressive and can be even cartoonish. One may call them surreal or to quote Dan Burkholder "super-real".

In the end it is your taste whether you think some of the images work for you or not.

How to "grunge" photos in Photomatix

"Grunged" Old Car

This was the first example we tried. We think it works fine because the car is already grungy in reality. The "grunging" process only enhances this look.

The processing actually does not need a lot of description. Use a good photos, merge them to HDR and use Photomatix Tonemapping (Detail Enhancer) at high "Strength" settings (applied 1 or 2 times) and you can get images that look like this one.